Do You Appreciate Your Intellectual Freedom?

Last night I attended a great event put on by my good friends Bob LeDrew and Cheryl Gain. Censored Out Loud brought local musicians and writers to a small stage at the Raw Sugar Cafe in Ottawa, where they freely expressed themselves, reading and performing works that, over the years, have come under scrutiny and […]

SuzeMuse Reviews: "Crush It!" by Gary Vaynerchuk

Breaking with my DNA to bring you the first in a series of 1 video book reviews by yours truly. You saw it here first, folks! Oh, and then go buy the book. Seriously. (Facebook readers, here’s the original YouTube link: http://tinyurl.com/qh6pfu)

10 Signs That You May Have Found Your True Passion

My good friend FenderGurl and I went to dinner last night. I love having dinner with her because we always talk about the most interesting things. Sure, we talk about work, kids, relationships, usual girl stuff, but we also go pretty deep sometimes. I rarely come away from a conversation with her without having some […]

First You Learn the Lesson….Then You Teach

Life is full of lessons. Every day I learn at least one thing that I didn’t know the day before. I would say we probably all do. The past 5 years or so have been a time of tremendous learning and growth for me. I’ve bought a house, gotten married (yes, in that order – […]

Them = Us – The Best Presentation in the World

Allan Isfan is a busy guy. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting with him over some pints and learning about all of the amazing stuff he’s in to: There’s FaveQuest, his startup, a nifty personalized video sharing tool that has tons of potential (check it out on Facebook). He’s a video podcaster, doing a weekly […]

Are you a Great Teacher?

I was never the greatest student back in high school. I was miserable at math (still am), and miserable at English. I had to take makeup classes after school when I was in Grade 11, because my grammar was “atrocious”. Ironic that I’m now a writer (take that, Mrs. Dicresce!). I muddled through high school, […]

On Passion and Success

Last evening I was privileged to attend the 2008 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala. This annual event is a pretty big deal for artists in our country. It honours the lifetime contributions of Canadian artists – from musicians to dancers to playwrights to filmmakers to comedians and beyond. Some past recipients include Norman Jewison, […]

Hard Work Should Be Easy

I’m inspired this morning by Mitch Joel of Twist Image. In his latest blog post, “How Hard Do You Really Work?”, he mentions a line he uses when he does his public speaking events. “…most people I know are trying to make it to the weekend. I’m trying to make it.” Wow. That is a […]

Zen and the Art of Playing Guitar

My fingers are numb. But it’s a good numb. Tonight, for the first time in over a year, I looked over at my lonely, dusty little red Fender guitar and I think it actually spoke to me. “Susan, pick me up…dust me off…play me badly…I don’t care!” And I did it. I dug out the […]

Things I have learned since starting my own business

It’s been 8 months, its seems like 3 years. We opened our doors in April, and it’s been a whirlwind since then. So much so that I’ve been very negligent at keeping up with my blog. I wanted to share some things I have learned since becoming a full time small business owner. – Don’t […]